News, Community, and Historical Thinking

What We’re Reading: March 20, 2014

Today’s What We’re Reading features a recently discovered 1,600 year old basilica in İznik Lake, tracing the history of the rise of US tuition, a call for “rational discussion” about open access, why library lovers are less lonely, and much more!

Eminent historian of women and the British working-class Carolyn Steedman talks with Cambridge University Press blog fifteeneightyfour about her recent book An Everyday Life of the English Working Class.

Fact-Checking “The Weakest Lincoln”

Last week we linked to the video of a Daily Show conversation about Lincoln. Since then, PunditFact has been busy checking claims by Jon Stewart and Andrew Napolitano and the overall score is not good.

A piece from a few years ago that’s very relevant for recent discussions of the value of the humanities. UCLA English professor Robert N. Watson debunks the idea that humanities departments are a financial burden on institutions.

Publishing Your Work

Rick Anderson, associate dean for scholarly resources and collections at the University of Utah, has posted a talk he gave at the Smithsonian about open access. He starts with a valuable introduction to the concepts and issues before calling for “rational discussion” and has fostered a lively debate in the comments.